My learning lesson car was a 1966 Ford Cortina that I traded a $100 camera for while I was in college. The thing was a Frankenstein monster. Somebody mounted a Capri engine in it and mostly got it right while making the car terribly unreliable due to what he got wrong. At the time I had this idea that I was good at working on cars and that Cortina taught me I had little inclination or ability.
I rebuilt that transmission, though. After fixing what broke when I put it together wrong, eventually dropping the transmission seven times, it was a dream to drive until the next weakest link broke. Parts were hard to come by and expensive. Not only that but electrical system by Lucas.
I was a broke college student who poured all I had into my studies. I decided I wasn't a car guy, traded the Cortina in for 600 bucks and bought a used VW bug.
I'm just not a car guy. My car that I'm driving today is a 1990 Toyota Camry. It's more reliable than my wife's Honda Element. We also own a very nice Toyota Tundra that I bought new a few years ago and use it to haul my rafting gear and to haul stuff but it doesn't get many miles other than trips to the river.
To me, cars are tools, not toys and I have enough self esteem to not care what people think when the see me driving my beater.
Still, I had a lot of fun in my old Cortina. Though it never looked as nice as this one.